In many developing countries, it is estimated only 40% of the population has access to full banking services. Most of the banking services are concentrated in larger metropolitan areas. Lack of availability of banking services, especially in the rural under-developed areas, is seen as a hindrance to continued economic development. A traditional banking solution based on brick-and-mortar type investments in rural areas is viewed as too capital intensive and unaffordable for the masses.
Latest models of smart phones with 4G capabilities are being used in many of the larger metropolitan areas for applications such as web surfing, banking, navigation, video streaming, on-line shopping, social media interaction, and others. However, infrastructure for providing 4G services in rural areas is virtually non-existent thereby limiting their use and many of the earlier generation cellular phones that are currently in use in the rural areas have been typically limited to providing voice and text messaging services.